Lehre

Research

I'm interested in how we learn about apparently simple relationships between events based on our experience with these events, for example how we learn the relationship between "raining" and cues that precede "raining", e.g. a certain kind of clouds, people caring an umbrella and the cloud symbol on today's front page of the local newspaper. To investigate the processes and mechanisms responsible for such learning, I'm using mainly associative learning models as a theoretical basis and
human causal learning and eye tracking during computer games as empirical counterparts.

Flexible representations in associative learning - a part/whole
or a capacity question?Postdoctoral Fellowship by the German Academic
Exchange Service (DAAD) and the University of Sydney, 2010-2012.

This project is linked to the debate over the way predictive stimuli
and signals are represented and processed during learning. Across
several experiments and papers, we established that humans differ in
the way they represent and process stimuli. Furthermore and in contrast
to the standard framing of the debate, we investigate whether the
crucial question is not whether the stimulus representation is
configural or elemental but rather whether the representation of
complex stimuli is affected by normalisation processes.

In order to model the flexibility and complexity of
stimulus processing during learning, complex mathematical theories are
necessary. In addition to the experimental verification of these
theories, one contributions of this projects to the field of
associative learning consists in providing tools and examples for computational
modelling of such associative learning theories

As we learn faster about
stimuli that previously were highly predicitive, do we also learn
faster about stimuli that were highly predictable? This project investigates whether the successful prediction of an
event in the past influences learning about this event in new
situations. It focusses on questions concerning the rate at which
humans learn about a stimulus and its associations with other events,
its associability. First, how is associability influenced by the extent
to which that stimulus has been predictable in the past, that is the
predictability of the stimulus? Second, how does the influence of
stimulus predictability interact with the already known effects of the
utility of the stimulus in predicting other events, that is the learned
predictiveness of the stimulus? In addition to the causal learning
paradigm, which is the standard procedure for the learned
predictiveness effect, the current project will take advantage of an
original paradigm for classical conditioning of the gaze that was
developed in cooperation with J. Harris and E. Livesey from the
University of Sydney and allows the simultaneous measurement of
learning and attentional effects.

This project is done in close collaboration with Evan
Livesey, University of Sydney, and my PhD student Wei Liu.

Connecting associative learning theories with other research fields

When I started, my
research focused on eye blink conditioning and skin conductance
conditioning. During my PhD, I switched to more cognitive paradigms,
like causal and predictive learning. This familiarity with historically
rather distinct methods and concepts allows me to approach my projects
from a unique position and the question which learning processes
control and interact in which paradigm remains a constant thread in my
research. In collaborations with colleagues, I'm also interested where and which of these processes govern behaviour outside the conditioning laboratory, in particular the clinical relevance of conditioning and learning processes.

Thorwart, A., Glautier, S. & Lachnit, H. (2010). Stimulus
processing in associative learning: What do we learn about fruit salad?
Talk at the ALG 2010, The 4th International Meeting of the Australian
Learning Group, Darwin, Australia.
abstract